QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9md

5 km SSW of Potala Pastillo, Puerto Rico

· 12 km deep · released about 750 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Juana Díaz Municipio 6 kmPonce Municipio 11 kmSanta Isabel Municipio 14 kmVillalba Municipio 21 kmPeñuelas Municipio 24 kmCoamo Municipio 24 kmSalinas Municipio 27 kmJayuya Municipio 30 kmGuayanilla Municipio 30 km
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 2.9 (md)
Depth
12 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Juana Díaz Municipio, 6 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1449 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 750 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 20,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 14,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.3× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 750 lb of TNT

Energy from the Gutenberg–Richter relation (log10E = 1.5M + 4.8), rounded to two figures; bar length is magnitude, which is already a logarithm of energy. Magnitudes of past earthquakes from the USGS catalogue.

Where

Epicentre 17.9495, -66.5175. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Juana Díaz Municipio, PR 6 km (4 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Juana Díaz Municipio
Ponce Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Ponce Municipio
Santa Isabel Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) W of here earthquakes near Santa Isabel Municipio
Villalba Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Villalba Municipio
Peñuelas Municipio, PR 24 km (15 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Peñuelas Municipio
Coamo Municipio, PR 24 km (15 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Coamo Municipio

Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.

Aftershocks so far

45 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

  1. 2.3 3 km SW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.1 1 km SSE of Yauco, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.2 1 km ESE of Yauco, Puerto Rico
  4. 1.6 5 km WSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  5. 1.9 3 km SSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  6. 1.8 1 km ESE of Lluveras, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.6 3 km WSW of Central Aguirre, Puerto Rico
  8. 1.9 1 km S of Yauco, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.7 3 km E of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.1 2 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.5 4 km SW of Gu?nica, Puerto Rico
  12. 1.6 0 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.0 10 km SSE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.5 4 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.6 2 km SW of Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of . QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 6.4 on 2020-01-07 — it released about 160,000 times the energy of this one.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.